394 Notes on the Formation of extensive 



a gale of wind will show this. Every breaker is more or less 

 charged with shingles, which are forced forward as far as the 

 broken wave can reach, and in their shock against the beach 

 drive others before them, that were not held in momentary 

 mechanical suspension by the breaker. By these means, and 

 particularly at the top of high-water, the shingles are projected 

 on the land beyond the reach of retiring waves. Heavy gales 

 and high tides combined seem to produce the highest beaches ; 

 they do indeed sometimes cause breaches in the ramparts they 

 have raised against themselves, but they quickly repair it. 

 The great accumulation of beach upon the land being effected 

 at the height of the tide, when the tide ebbs, it is quite clear 

 the sea cannot deprive the land of what it has thrown upon it. 

 In moderate weather and during neap tides various little lines 

 of beach are formed, which are swept away by a heavy gale ; 

 and when these little beaches are so obliterated, it might be 

 supposed by a casual observer that the shingles of the lines, 

 so apparently swept away, are but accumulated elsewhere. 

 These remarks of course only apply to such situations where the 

 sea, during gales, has no access to cliffs or piers, from whence 

 there might be a back- wave carrying all before it? but to such 

 situations, and they are abundant, where the breakers meet 

 with no resistance, and strike nothing but the more or less in- 

 clined plane of a shingle beach. Even incases where the waves 

 in heavy gales and high tides do reach cliffs, and for the time 

 remove shingle beaches, it is curious to see how soon these lat- 

 ter are restored when the weather moderates, and when the 

 breakers, in consequence of a diminished projecting force, cease 

 to recoil from the cliff behind. 



Shingle beaches travel in the direction of the prevalent winds t 

 or those which produce the greatest breakers ; of this excel- 

 lent examples are seen on our southern coast, where the pre- 

 valent winds being W. or S.W. the beaches travel eastwards. 

 If rocky projections or points of land occur on the east of any 

 shingle beach so travelling, the sea soon forms a considerable 

 barrier against itself, more particularly when the mouths of 

 valleys or flat lands back the shingles ; such flat lands or 

 mouths of valleys thus obtaining protection from the ravages 

 of the sea (Plate II. fig. 2). If the streams which discharge 

 themselves into the sea from such valleys or flat lands are small, 

 their mouths are barred by the beach, and the water perco- 

 lates through the shingles. Such streams, in cases of flood, 

 cut through the shingle a passage again to be dammed up by 

 the effects of a gale of wind. 



It would appear that though shingle or pebble beaches 

 travel coastways, in consequence of the general direction of 

 the breakers, there is no evidence of their being transported 

 outwards or into the depths of the ocean. The seaward front 



